Unfortunately over the past few years the rainfall has been woefully inadequate which of course means poorer crop quality. (if we are lucky enough to actually get anything to grow). Along with a parched landscape and very thirsty trees indeed.
Of course being where we are we are not on mains water, so we simply cannot just turn on a tap and not worry about where the water is coming from. Lets face it, not many people actually give much thought to where the water they use on a daily basis actually comes from, instead most people simply turn on the tap and it is there, fresh, clean and plentiful. Well imagine a lifestyle where you had to give it more than a cursory consideration, imagine if you had to both plan your usage and acquisition and by acquisition we do not mean the monthly payment you make to some water company. Instead we are talking about bringing your water in manually as well as collected courtesy of Mother Nature.
Now the water we use in the house is actually trucked in (roughly 10,000 litres a month) all of which is "agua potable" (drinking water) which means it is safe not only to brush your teeth with and shower but also to drink straight out of the tap if you felt so motioned. However, this kind of water is far too expensive to give to plants, even if we wanted too we couldn't simply because the tank (aka Balsa) in which it is stored isn't big enough to contain enough water to furnish the house and garden together much less the land. This meant we had to come up with a solution. A means of watering without it costing us the earth or at least all the money we have coming in each month.
This is when we turned to Mother Nature and her bounty, albeit it somewhat sparce at times.
And her bounty is of course rainfall.
Of course the rain in Spain (or as we are Catalunya) can be somewhat erractic as far as how it falls. One time it could be so light in nature as to barely dampen the surface of the land and another it could fall in such torrents as to wash away that land. You never can tell how it will fall and of course when.
So to our mind we thought it a wise move to make the most of what Mother Nature provided and by this we mean, we decided to collect the rain that fell and store it for (not a rainy day but) a drier day.
Initially we thought small, (well you do don't you) putting rain barrels beneath the guttering down pipes to catch the rain water as it fell but this method we soon realised was only a stop gap, lasting at best a couple of days into a dry spell. Realising this we soon had to come up with something a little grander in scheme and definately more long term. After putting our heads together we came up with the only solution really worth considering. A water tank. Of course we could have ended up with a tank with nothing in it, but keeping our fingers crossed we would experience at least one or two Noah sized deluges during the winter we hoped to see it fill with what has to be the most precious commodity on this earth, water.
Allow us if you will to introduce you to our solution, our water tank.
But a water tank doesn't just magically appear.
First you have to find a place to build it.
You then have to dig it out, using of course an excavating machine and a little dump truck. Thank fully Christopher was up to the challenge of driving it, a task he enjoyed no end.
After the digging out came the filling in, or should we say the laying of the foundations and the base onto which the walls were built and floor of the balsa laid.
Christopher must have walked miles (kilometres) behind the 'whacker plate' pounding the sand and gravel down so that the base was solid and strong.
Once the walls and base were built/laid we got down to painting it, naturally I chose the colour pink. Why pink I hear you ask, well because I happen to like pink and more importantly it is a more natural earth colour (believe it or not) than blue, and more esthetically pleasing than black. It was as we were painting it we started to think how our newly built balsa (tank) might have another use, come summer.
Hmmm, it kind of looks like an empty swimming pool, don't you agree.
Well that is what we thought, of course a balsa or tank isn't a pool, but once we put the ladder in, (a requirement by law so that anyone who falls in can climb out) it really did make us start thinking of those hot days, floating around in a cooling pool, listening to the silence that surrounds us......Ahhhh, what bliss.
But eeeewwww! rainwater goes a yukky green colour when left untreated, you can't possibly swim in that, could you?
Actually, you could, but of course like you we don't relish the idea so we use the rainwater for the trees, pumping it into a water container known as a 'Cubo' or emptying it using the huge tap we have fitted to one end of the tank to water the trees.
Below you can see one of our "cubo's" being filled. Christopher again comes to the fore for the task of emptying it as he is really good at driving our 4x4 whilst towing our large trailer which we have nicknamed "Tyson", (so named because it a Tysse Trailer and because it packs a punch when it comes to carry heavy items such as a filled Cubo which has to weigh close on to a metric tonne when filled).
Alternatively as we have mentioned we can just simply open up the drain valve we fitted to one end of the pool through which the water flows via pipes to beneath the trees. (granted at present we don't have sufficient piping to carry the water to all of the trees but as we are want to say when folk start to make comments about this... 'Rome was not built in a day' and neither is an irrigation system when you are on a budget).
As the water goes down we naturally get in and give the tank a good old clean. Collecting every last drop of water, wasting none as every drop counts when it comes to giving our cash crop trees the water they need.
Now you might be wondering if the water we take from the water tank come swimming pool would actually be any good for the trees.
Well, water is water, pretty much, besides the green gunk that you see actually feeds the trees as surely as if it were fertiliser, so yes, it is good for the trees and during the hot dry summer months the thousand or so litres we give to each of them helps them produce healthier, fatter olives.
Now that is what we call eco management. .
But how do we refill the tank once it is emptied, after all it doesn't rain in Spain, not in the summer. Well actually that isn't strictly true, it does rain, very, very occasionally, usually in a quick downpour that runs off the land in a split second and by no where near the amount either the trees need or as far as refilling the tank goes. So we truck in "Agua Potable" (it is the only water we can actually have delivered up here) and refill the pool using that.
Yes it is costly, especially seeing as it takes in total 34,000 litres to fill it.
But oh is it worth it.
Because as you can see, it looks so inviting, so much so Christopher our son is always the first to go in and try it out.
Of course to keep it clean so others can enjoy it we have to use chemicals. (we are looking into more eco ways of doing this, fear not). But until then we do the minimum to gain the maximum out of its usage after which, once the summer is over we stop putting anything in and we let the swimming pool revert to being a water tank and the water to "agricultural water". Now I know some of you are wondering how eco putting this water onto our land really is, well after much research the chemicals we use break down into natural elements so it really is not harmful once it has been given a little time to mellow as we call it.
Once the water is ready to use we then water the land as and when needed. (believe it or not, even in the winter we have to water the trees occasionally and the garden constantly as often rain doesn't fall in large enough quantities or frequent enough to actually make for a bumper crop of anything save weeds. However, when it does fall we thank "Mother Nature" for her bounty and channel the water into the balsa courtesy of our aqueduct so we can continue watering throughout the dry spells.
So can we interest anyone in a dip?
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